Leontyne Price Archives - Cultural Attaché https://culturalattache.co/tag/leontyne-price/ The Guide to Arts and Culture events in and around Los Angeles Thu, 19 May 2022 21:59:45 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.2 Latonia Moore Once Again Faces Down Verdi’s “Aida” https://culturalattache.co/2022/05/19/latonia-moore-once-again-faces-down-verdis-aida/ https://culturalattache.co/2022/05/19/latonia-moore-once-again-faces-down-verdis-aida/#respond Thu, 19 May 2022 22:30:00 +0000 https://culturalattache.co/?p=16373 "I feel like my place in a business like this is to show you that what you look like as a person will never matter more than what it is you can create as an artist."

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There’s a stereotype of opera singers, particularly women, that they are divas. That they can be very quiet and reserved. While that hasn’t usually been my experience, nothing prepared me for soprano Latonia Moore’s reaction when I told her that I had never seen a production of Aida in person and that I will finally do so on Saturday at LA Opera’s opening night of Verdi’s masterwork. Her response? “I’m going to pop your Aida cherry!”

Moore is playing the title character in this Francesca Zambello production that is the first Aida to be performed at LA Opera in over 15 years. She’s very familiar with the part having first performed it in 2009. Moore made her Metropolitan Opera debut in the role in 2012 as a last-minute substitute for Violeta Urmana who was sick.

Since then, in addition to Aida, she’s regularly performed the role of Cio-Cio San in Madama Butterfly and was seen in the Met Opera productions of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess and Terence Blanchard‘s Fire Shut Up In My Bones. Italian operas are her passion, but as you’ll see from this interview, her jazz background earlier in her life has been the gift that keeps on giving.

What follows are excerpts from our conversation earlier this week that have been edited for length and clarity.

You’re 13 years into singing this part and 10 years after your Met debut as Aida. What’s your relationship to Verdi’s opera today?

When I first started doing the role, I didn’t know if that was really for me vocally. I thought my voice was a bit light for it. So as the years went on, I started getting more [performances] added. I was doing it all over the world. The more I did, the deeper I fell into the character. By about 2016 my voice caught up with where I should be vocally with the character.

Every time I do it I find something new. I tend to put my own stamp on it and try to break away from the traditional way of doing it and singing it and provide the audience with something they’re not used to hearing. I feel like such a staple like this is done mostly one way for so many years. Every time I go out on the stage, even within a production – even within one performance – I like to spice it up and do something that’s more Latonia.

What have you learned or discovered about the character in that time?

Aida, you really hear about who she really is and her struggle and things like that. But one thing that I’ve learned about a character like hers is she’s a lot more like her father than I ever thought. She’s very much an outsider. The more I delve into the text and the way I’m singing and the way I’m saying words, it’s becoming a lot more visceral than it ever was before. She’s the daughter of a warrior, she’s been trained to fight, she knows how to do it. She’s an animalistic person by nature, but has been forced to seem like something submissive. She actually is not and I think that I’ve embraced more of the power of a person like that. 

In previous interviews you’ve discussed your concern that you were only being cast in Aida because you are Black. Do you still feel that way?

I still believe that, especially initially, it was definitely the color of my skin, because vocally I was not right for Aida when I first started doing it. The people who hired me knew that, but they didn’t care because they wanted someone Black. I started to wrap my head around the fact that maybe I was being cast for Aida because I was appropriate for the role was four years after my Met debut. I was just like, you know what? I’m a pretty good Aida. This actually fits now, but it didn’t before. Maybe it took having a couple kids for my voice to settle into it a a little more and then make it a bit deeper of a sound for Aida.

Do I still think that people cast me because I’m Black? Yes. I think that’s why I’m here in L.A. I don’t think that it was only because I’m a good Aida. I think they wanted to cast a good Black Aida. And hopefully that’s what they got. But yes, that’s the factor here because I’m Black and I think that continues to be. I think that for many companies, especially in this climate, they’re just like we have to cast the Black Aida because, you know, we don’t want any pushback for it. You know, casting a white Aida right now in the climate here in America, it’s dicey.

Does that become limiting for you and the roles you can play?

This is where I’ve become a bit up in arms with the casting, because I see where they’re coming from. You know, it’s like they have to have a Black Aida. But does that mean that I can’t be Madame Butterfly anymore? That it has to be an Asian one? Because my whole reason for getting into the business was so I could be someone Japanese. I could be a Venetian. I played Leila in The Pearl Fishers, a Sri Lankan. That’s what I love about an art form like this that is so exotic and I can transform into anything. So when people are saying, yes, we should cast a Black Aida, you know, that doesn’t sit right with me because it feels like where I’m then limited.

The moment everyone is waiting for in Aida is o patria mia. What’s your approach before and during the singing of this aria?

Any soprano that sits there and says they’re not thinking about it; I think one of two things about that. Either one, they have done therapeutic things to change their mindset or two, they’re lying to try to convince themselves that it’s not torture. Every single soprano, and this is for everybody that’s about all these sopranos, we all know y’all are thinking about it, too. Surely Maria Callas, when she got there, started thinking and you can hear it. You can hear the people start thinking about it. You can’t completely throw caution to the wind because there’s a lot riding on it. What’s giving everybody so much anxiety about it is exactly what you said – the expectation. It’s that everybody’s waiting on you to stick the landing. To this day it will always terrify me. Always. I’m not going to sit here and pretend Oh, no, I’ve mastered it. No, no, no. I’m going to go to my grave having never mastered that part of it.

I do feel like one difference between the way I used to think about o patria mia and now. Now I’m not so focused on whether or not I stick the landing. Either it’s going to happen or it’s not, but I have to use this character to my advantage no matter what. A lot of times people are expecting it to sound like something off a recording that they heard. Can she do it like Leontyne Price? Can she do it like Zinka Milanov? I’m never going to be able to do it like them. However, you know what I am able to do that maybe not a lot of people are able to do is convince you that I am that person doing it. Even if I crash and burn and bust all over the high C it’ll still be Aida doing it, not Latonia. So that’s one thing that I had to retrain my brain about it. No matter what I end up doing, if she’s going to bust a note, she’s busting it because Aida wanted to.

How would you compare the joy that you get in singing a classic role like Aida or singing Madama Butterfly to the opportunity to sing new work like Fire Shut Up in My Bones?

I’ve always thought of myself as an Italian soprano, one that just focuses mostly on Italian opera. However, I have a big jazz background and I switched to opera while I was in college. But jazz is really my focus. I don’t particularly like singing in English, but what was so appealing about these works, like Fire Shut Up in My Bones and the upcoming Champion, is that they are jazz operas. And this goes for Porgy and Bess, too. It goes back to me saying that Leontyne was beamed down for the planet to sing Aida. That’s what she was here for. I feel like the reason I started in jazz and came into the opera the way I did was for the work that I’m doing right now on Fire Shut Up in My Bones and stuff like Porgy and Bess, Champion and whatever comes in that vein.

I love Italian opera. I’ll never give it up if I can help it. But some people fit right in the pocket of something. I’m the one that fits in the pocket of being the soprano in these Black jazz operas. I guess I find myself on the planet at the right place, right time. I feel like it’s what I was meant to do.

On your Instagram account earlier this year, you quoted Charles M. Blow’s memoir that served as the inspiration for Fire Shut Up in My Bones. You quoted, “I would have to learn to accept myself joyfully, fully as the amalgamation of both the gifts and the tragedies of fate as the person destiny had chosen me to be.” So today, Latonia, in 2022, who is the person destiny has chosen you to be? 

I’m a beautiful example of somebody that may be viewed as an underdog, but an example of somebody that no matter what you look like, no matter what you’ve gone through or what you said, you still persevere. I feel like I’m here to be an example to other people.

I hope that every other kid like me sees what I’m doing and knows that they can do it, too. I feel like my place in a business like this is to show you that what you look like as a person will never matter more than what it is you can create as an artist. I’m simply put here to create and make art for people, to encourage them, to hear them, to show them that they can do it. Yes, you can have children. Yes, you can go up there and you can look like anything and transform into something else. Yes, you can go up and help the youth and you can help them lift up into a great career.

I feel like I’m a very good example in this business of what perseverance can really get you. I’m the sort of person that is like if you streamline your energy toward what you want and you believe it with unwavering faith, you’re going to make your mark. Period. But it has to be unwavering faith. Be patient and don’t care how long it’s going to take. It’ll happen.

There are six performances of Aida at LA Opera from May 21st through June 12th

All photos of Latonia Moore in LA Opera’s production of Aida by Cory Weaver. (Courtesy LA Opera)

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Celebrating Women’s History Month: Week 51 at the Met https://culturalattache.co/2021/03/01/celebrating-womens-history-month-week-51-at-the-met/ https://culturalattache.co/2021/03/01/celebrating-womens-history-month-week-51-at-the-met/#respond Mon, 01 Mar 2021 08:01:00 +0000 https://culturalattache.co/?p=13235 Metropolitan Opera Website

March 1st - March 7th

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The US government decreed that March would be Women’s History Month starting in 1987. But anyone who knows the world of opera knows that women have long played a strong role on opera stages around the world. Week 51 at the Met celebrates women on and off-stage.

Amongst the great performers are Hildegard Behrens, Renée Fleming, Mirella Freni, Susan Graham, Marilyn Horne, Jessye Norman, Leontyne Price, Patricia Racette, Golda Schultz and Beverly Sills. One of this week’s productions was directed by two-time Tony Award winner Julie Taymor.

All productions become available at 7:30 PM EST/4:30 PM PST and remain available for 23 hours. Schedules and timings may be subject to change.

The Met is heavily promoting their Met Stars Live in Concert series and the planned resumption of performances in the 2021-2022 season, so you’ll have to go past those announcements and promos to find the streaming productions on the Metropolitan Opera website

If you read this column early enough on March 1st, you might still have time to catch the 2014-2015 production of Il Trovatore by Giuseppe Verdi that concludes Dmitri Hvorostovsky Week at the Met.

Here is the full line-up of Week 51 at the Met:

Monday, March 1 – Donizetti’s Don Pasquale

Conducted by Nicola Rescigno; starring Beverly Sills, Alfredo Kraus, Håkan Hagegård and Gabriel Bacquier. This John Dexter production is from the 1978-1979 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was made available on July 4th.

Gaetano Donizetti’s opera had its world premiere in Paris in 1843. The composer collaborated with Giovanni Ruffini on the libretto. It was inspired by the libretto Angelo Anelli had written for Ser Mercantonio, an opera by Stefano Pavesi from 1810.

Ernesto is Don Pasquale’s nephew. He wants to marry Norina, but Don Pasquale wants to choose his nephew’s bride. Others conspire against Pasquale and trick him so that ultimately Ernesto and Norina can marry.

With her role as Norina in this production of Don Pasquale, Beverly Sills gave her final performance at the Metropolitan Opera. This was a new production of the opera and was apparently created with Sills in mind.

Harold C. Schonberg, writing for the New York Times said of Sills’ performance, “The role of Norina did not tax Miss Sills’ vocal resources as much as some recent ones she has attempted. It would be idle to claim that she could handle everything in the part, but she paced herself well, avoided elaborate cadenzas or interpolations, and tried to project a clear line. Her work Thursday night was a triumph of experience and professionalism.”

Tuesday, March 2 – Verdi’s Falstaff

Conducted by James Levine; starring Mirella Freni, Barbara Bonney, Marilyn Horne, Susan Graham, Paul Plishka, Frank Lopardo and Bruno Pola. This revival of Franco Zeffirelli’s 1964 production is from the 1992-1993 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was made available on July 24th, October 23rd and February 16th.

Two of Shakespeare’s play served as the inspiration for Verdi’s FalstaffThe Merry Wives of Windsor and sections from Henry IV Parts 1 and 2. Arrigo Boito adapted the plays to create the libretto. Falstaff had its world premiere in 1893 at La Scala in Milan. This was Verdi’s final opera and only his second comedic opera.

Simply put, Sir John Falstaff tries everything he can to woo two married woman so he can assume their husband’s vast fortunes. He’s rather bumbling in his efforts and the machinations in place to thwart his endeavors leave him with nothing short of a major comeuppance.

Edward Rothstein, writing for the New York Times, seemed to thoroughly enjoy the production. And he was very pleased with Plishka’s performance as the title character:

“Mr. Plishka gave the role an almost touchingly human quality. In the astonishing first scene aria, in which Falstaff declares his ambitions, mocks the idea of honor and praises his belly, there were few mannerisms or exaggerations. Mr. Plishka played it straight; he was a Falstaff almost enticingly full of himself. His voice was not often handsome (why should it have been?) but it was large, weighty and in character.”

Wednesday, March 3 – Wagner’s Die Walküre

Conducted by James Levine; starring Hildegard Behrens, Jessye Norman, Christa Ludwig, Gary Lakes, James Morris and Kurt Moll. This revival of the 1986 Otto Schenk production is from the 1988-1989 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was made available June 30th, October 8th and February 14th.

This is the second opera in Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen (also known as The Ring Cycle.) It had its premiere as a stand-alone opera in 1870 in Munich. The first performance of the entire cycle was at Bayreuth six years later. Wagner wrote the libretto as well as the music.

The son of the god Wotan is a fugitive named Siegmund. When he finds himself taking refuge at Sieglinde’s house, the two fall passionately in love. But Sieglinde is married and in order for her and Siegmund to be together Siegmund must defeat her husband in a battle to the death.

This production marked the first time Norman sang the role of Sieglinde at the Metropolitan Opera. She earned rave reviews. What disappointed Donal Henahan is his New York Times review were the very things that make this film possible.

“The most objectionable feature of the evening, however, was also a technological one. Television cameras worked away throughout the performance from positions at either side of the stage and at the foot of both aisles, distracting what surely must have been hundreds of people seated in line with brightly lighted monitor screens. The machines, one learned, were rehearsing for a later Walkure telecast and making ‘scratch’ tapes that might be needed as backups. This, mind you, from a company that will not employ supertitles because they detract the audience’s attention from the stage.”

With this production you’ll get to see the end result of that distraction.

Thursday, March 4 – Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte

Conducted by James Levine; starring Golda Schultz, Kathryn Lewek, Charles Castronovo, Markus Werba, Christian Van Horn and René Pape. This revival of the 2004 Julie Taymor production is from the 2017-2018 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was made available on June 28th and October 1st.

Mozart’s opera premiered in September 1791 in Vienna a mere two months before the composer died. It features a libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder.

Prince Tamino is asked by the Queen of the Night to free her daughter Pamina from Sarastro. Tamino, however, is impressed with Sarastro and the way his community lives in the world and wants to be a part of it. Both alone and together Tamino and Pamina endure multiple tests. If they succeed, what will happen to them? To the Queen of the Night?

Anyone who has seen Taymor’s work for such shows as Juan Darién and The Lion King knows that she regularly employs puppets and wildly inventive staging. 

Alex Ross, writing for The New Yorker about the original 2004 production said, “The Met stage has never been so alive with movement, so charged with color, so brilliant to the eye. The outward effect is of a shimmering cultural kaleidoscope, with all manner of mystical and folk traditions blending together. Behind the surface lies a melancholy sense that history has never permitted such a synthesis—that Mozart’s theme of love and power united is nothing more than a fever dream. But Taymor allows the Enlightenment fantasy to play out to the end.”

Friday, March 5 – Britten’s Peter Grimes

Conducted by Sir Donald Runnicles; starring Patricia Racette, Anthony Dean Griffey and Anthony Michaels-Moore. This John Doyle production is from the 2007-2008 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was made available on May 14th, September 1st, November 13th and December 9th.

Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes had its world premiere in London in 1945. The libretto was written by Montagu Slater who based it on a poem in The Borough by George Crabbe.

In Peter Grimes, the title character is facing intense questioning after his apprentice has died. The townsfolk believe him to be responsible, the coroner rules he was not. Shortly afterward, Grimes recruits another apprentice, John. Ellen, the only person in town who believes Grimes, later finds herself questioning Grimes when she finds that John has intense bruising on his neck. Word spreads quickly about the boy’s injuries and the people in town want an investigation. What follows is tragic on multiple levels.

The title role was written by Benjamin Britten for his partner, Peter Pears. In the mid 60s, Jon Vickers’s performance has been considered definitive for quite some time.

John Doyle, best known for his minimalist productions of Stephen Sondheim musicals, made his Met Opera debut with this production of Peter Grimes. Griffey, having sung this opera a few times before this production, finally found his way into a lead role at the Met.

Anthony Tommasini, writing in the New York Times, found some unique qualities in how Griffey tackled the part: “Mr. Griffey, even though his voice has heft and carrying power, is essentially a lyric tenor. And it is disarming to hear the role sung with such vocal grace, even sweetness in places. Every word of his diction is clear. You sense Grimes’s dreamy side struggling to emerge. The moments of gentleness, though, make Mr. Griffey’s impulsive fits of hostility, his bursts of raw vocal power, seem even more threatening.”

Saturday, March 6 – Dvořák’s Rusalka

Conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin; starring Renée Fleming, Emily Magee, Dolora Zajick, Piotr Beczała and John Relyea. This revival of Otto Schenk’s 1993 production is from the 2013-2014 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was made available on April 13th, November 19th and January 17th.

Rusalka was Antonín Dvořák’s ninth opera and was based on fairytales. Poet Jaroslav Kvapil wrote the libretto. Rusalka had its world premiere in Prague in 1901.

In essence, this is the same story told in Hans Christian Anderson’s The Little Mermaid. A water sprite, Rusalka, tells her father she has fallen in love with a human prince and wants to join him in his world. He asks her to see a witch who gives her a potion to join the prince, but there are conditions: Rusalka will no longer be able to speak and she loses the opportunity to be immortal. More importantly, if the Prince does not stay in love with her, he will die and Rusalka will be damned for all eternity. This is definitely not a Disney version of the story.

Zachary Woolfe, in his New York Times review, asked a question about this opera and relied on Nézet-Séguin to answer it:

“Dvorak’s Rusalka, about a water nymph doomed by her love for a human prince, is a fairy tale. But is it polite and placid, or savage and strange?

“There’s disagreement about the answer at the Metropolitan Opera, where a decidedly mixed revival of the work opened on Thursday evening. The conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, a prime candidate to replace James Levine someday as the Met’s music director, offered a clear vote for savage. He led a fierce orchestral performance, bringing out the symphonic sweep in Dvorak’s score and underlining its most cutting details.”

His comments about Nézet-Séguin proved to be accurate, didn’t they?

Sunday, March 7 – Verdi’s La Forza del Destino

Conducted by James Levine; starring Leontyne Price, Giuseppe Giacomini, Leo Nucci and Bonaldo Giaiotti. This John Dexter production is from the 1983-1984 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was made available on June 18th and 19th, November 6th and February 2nd.

This frequently performed Verdi opera had its world premiere in 1862 in St. Petersburg, Russia. The libretto is by Francesco Maria Piave, based on an 1835 Spanish drama, Don Álvaro o la fuerza del sino by Ángel de Saavedra.

Leonora is the daughter of the Marquis of Calatrava. She falls in love with Don Alvaro, but her father is dead-set against their getting married. A tragedy befalls all three leaving Leonora to find solace in a monastery.

This was one of Price’s greatest roles throughout her career. Bernard Holland, writing in the New York Times, raved about her performance.

“This was truly Miss Price’s evening. There were some jolting shifts of register, and Miss Price must protect her fragile upper notes with tender care; but her dramatic presence on stage and the overall impact of her singing went far beyond matters of technique. ‘Madre, pietosa Vergine’ had a stunning muted eloquence, and ‘Pace, pace, mio Dio!’ at the end had a sonorous beauty and power of communication that this listener – and I think everyone else in attendance – will think back upon for many years to come.”

That’s all for Week 51 at the Met. Next week’s theme will be Verismo Passions and will include two first-time streaming productions.

Enjoy the operas and enjoy your week!

Photo: Beverly Sills in Don Pasquale (Courtesy Met Opera Archives)

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Black History Month Part I – Week 47 at the Met https://culturalattache.co/2021/02/01/black-history-month-part-i-week-47-at-the-met/ https://culturalattache.co/2021/02/01/black-history-month-part-i-week-47-at-the-met/#respond Mon, 01 Feb 2021 08:01:01 +0000 https://culturalattache.co/?p=12766 Metropolitan Opera Website

February 1st - February 7th

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February is Black History Month and the Metropolitan Opera launches two weeks of performances that feature Black opera stars. Week 47 at the Met is Part 1 of that series.

Amongst the stars performing in this week’s productions are Kathleen Battle, Angel Blue, Lawrence Brownlee, Maria Ewing, Denyce Graves, Jessye Norman, Eric Owens, Florence Quivar, Leontyne Price and Shirley Verrett.

All productions become available at 7:30 PM EST/4:30 PM PST and remain available for 23 hours. Schedules and timings may be subject to change.

The Met is heavily promoting their Met Stars Live in Concert series and the planned resumption of performances in the 2021-2022 season, so you’ll have to go past those announcements and promos to find the streaming productions on the Metropolitan Opera website

If you read this column early enough on February 1st, you might still have time to catch the 2007-2008 production of Macbeth by Giuseppe Verdi that concludes The Antiheroes week.

Here’s the full line-up for Week 47 at the Met:

Monday, February 1 – The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess

Conducted by David Robertson; starring Angel Blue, Golda Schultz, Latonia Moore, Denyce Graves, Frederick Ballentine, Eric Owens, Alfred Walker and Donovan Singletary. This James Robinson production is from the 2019-2020 season. This is an encore presentation of the production previously made available on September 5th and 6th and December 11th.

DuBose Heyward’s 1925 novel, Porgy, was the inspiration for a play written by DuBose and Dorothy Heyward. That play served as the inspiration for this opera by George Gershwin with a libretto by DuBose Heyward and Ira Gershwin. Porgy and Bess had its world premiere in 1935 at Boston’s Colonial Theatre.

In the opera, Porgy lives in Charleston’s slums. He’s disabled and spends his time begging. He is enamored with Bess and does everything he can to rescue her from an abusive lover, Crown and a far-too-seductive drug dealer, Sportin’ Life.

If you saw the Broadway version which went by the name The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, that was a truncated version and it was also modified to fit more contemporary times. The Metropolitan Opera production is the full opera as originally written by George Gershwin, Dubose and Dorothy Heyward and Ira Gershwin.

Gershwin’s score features such beloved songs as SummertimeI Loves You Porgy and It Ain’t Necessarily So.

Anthony Tommasini, writing for the New York Times, raved about the production and, in particular, its two stars:

“As Porgy, the magnificent bass-baritone Eric Owens gives one of the finest performances of his distinguished career. His powerful voice, with its earthy textures and resonant sound, is ideal for the role. His sensitivity into the layered feelings and conflicts that drive his character made even the most familiar moments of the music seem startlingly fresh. And, as Bess, the sumptuously voiced soprano Angel Blue is radiant, capturing both the pride and fragility of the character.”

Tuesday, February 2 – Verdi’s La Forza del Destino

Conducted by James Levine; starring Leontyne Price, Giuseppe Giacomini, Leo Nucci and Bonaldo Giaiotti. This John Dexter production is from the 1983-1984 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was previously available on June 18th and 19th and November 6th.

This frequently performed Verdi opera had its world premiere in 1862 in St. Petersburg, Russia. The libretto is by Francesco Maria Piave, based on an 1835 Spanish drama, Don Álvaro o la fuerza del sino by Ángel de Saavedra.

Leonora is the daughter of the Marquis of Calatrava. She falls in love with Don Alvaro, but her father is dead-set against their getting married. A tragedy befalls all three leaving Leonora to find solace in a monastery.

This was one of Price’s greatest roles throughout her career. Bernard Holland, writing in the New York Times, raved about her performance.

“This was truly Miss Price’s evening. There were some jolting shifts of register, and Miss Price must protect her fragile upper notes with tender care; but her dramatic presence on stage and the overall impact of her singing went far beyond matters of technique. ‘Madre, pietosa Vergine’ had a stunning muted eloquence, and ‘Pace, pace, mio Dio!’ at the end had a sonorous beauty and power of communication that this listener – and I think everyone else in attendance – will think back upon for many years to come.”

Wednesday, February 3 – Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites

Conducted by Manuel Rosenthal; starring Maria Ewing, Jessye Norman, Betsy Norden, Régine Crespin and Florence Quivar. This John Dexter production is from the 1986-1987 season. 

Francis Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites had its world premiere in 1957 at La Scala in Milan. The composer wrote the libretto based on a rejected screenplay by Georges Bernanos.

The setting is France during the French Revolution. Blanche de la Force, who is impossibly shy and fragile, wants to retreat from all that is going on in the world and chooses a Carmelite monastery. The prioress tells her that a monastery is a place for devotion to God, not escape from the world. Blanche convinces her to let her stay. What happens to Blanche and the other nuns proves not to be the escape she was hoping for.

Will Crutchfield, in his New York Times review, said of this production, “The revival is cast from strength: the Carmelite sisters are being played by Maria Ewing, Jessye Norman, Florence Quivar, Regine Crespin and Betsy Norden. It has always been easy to get good singers interested in this work…This is not because the opera is old-fashioned. It is a severe drama of the spirit; its questions are not of romantic passion or political freedom but of the relationship of these nuns to their vows, to God, to one another and to their consciences as they face a terrible fate in Revolutionary France. There are no star turns, no big vocal payoffs, yet the writing is essentially vocal in the sense of treating the human voice with love and respect. It does not ask singers to degrade their art, even though it does ask them to cede a part of it: there is a lesson here for willing composers.”

Thursday, February 4 – Rossini’s La Cenerentola

Conducted by Maurizio Benini; starring Elīna Garanča, Lawrence Brownlee, Simone Alberghini, Alessandro Corbelli and John Relyea. This revival of Cesare Lievi’s 1997 production is from the 2008-2009 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was made available on July 17th and September 17th.

Gioachino Rossini’s opera of the Cinderella story is based on Charles Perrault’s Cendrillon. The libertto, by Jacopo Ferretti, was based on two previous libretti for operas based on the same story: Charles-Guillaume Étienne’s libretto for Nicolas Isouard’s 1810 opera Cendrillon and Francesco Fiorini’s libretto for Stefano Pavesi’s 1814 opera, Agatina La virtú premiataLa Cenerentola had its world premiere in 1817 in Rome.

The story is exactly you expect. After being relegated to chores around the house by her Stepmother and her Stepsisters, Cinderella dreams of going to the Prince’s ball. They mock her before leaving themselves for the event. Cinderella’s fairy godmother appears to make her dream a reality, but only if she returns by midnight.

In Steve Smith’s New York Times review of this production he raved about Brownlee. “As Don Ramiro, the Prince Charming of the tale, the young American tenor Lawrence Brownlee was outstanding, with a sweet sound, impressive agility, ringing high notes and a smile that resonated to the core of his interpretation. Mr. Brownlee’s performance of the prince’s big aria, ‘Si, Ritrovarla Io Giuro,’ drew the evening’s most rousing applause.”

Friday, February 5 – Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro

Conducted by James Levine; starring Carol Vaness, Kathleen Battle, Frederica von Stade, Thomas Allen and Ruggero Raimondi. This Jean-Pierre Ponnelle production is from the 1985-1986 season.

Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro is based on the 1784 play La folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro (translated: “The Mad Day, or The Marriage of Figaro”) by Pierre Beaumarchais. Lorenzo da Ponte wrote the libretto. La Nozze di Figaro had its world premiere in Vienna in 1786.

Figaro and Susanna are getting married. They are in a room made available to them by the Count who plans to seduce the bride-to-be based on an old law that gave permission to lords to have sex with servant girls on their wedding night. When Figaro gets wind of this plan he enlists several people to outwit the Count using disguises, altered identities and more.

In his New York Times review, Donal Henahan seemed particularly impressed with Battle. “The greatest strength of this performance lay in its pair of servant lovers, Kathleen Battle as Susanna and Ruggero Raimondi as Figaro, with Frederica von Stade’s Cherubino and Carol Vaness’s Countess adding vocal quality to a cast that had its weak spots. Miss Battle’s spring-water soprano and pert acting were a delight all evening, and her last-act aria, ‘Deh vieni, non tardar,’ caught Susanna’s whole character in one affecting moment.”

Saturday, February 6 – Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos

Conducted by James Levine; starring Jessye Norman, Kathleen Battle and Tatiana Troyanos. This revival of Bodo Igesz’s 1962 production is from the 1987-1988 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was previously available on May 13th and December 5th.

Richard Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos had its world premiere in Stuttgart in 1912. The libretto is by Hugo von Hofmannsthal.

This is really an opera-within-an-opera. Two different sets of performers have been brought together at the home of a rich man. One group is a serious ensemble of opera singers who embrace the highest of dramatic operas. The other is a group of comedians who are set on acting out an Italian comedy. Their host, seeing that time is quickly running out, asks them to perform their separate works together.

Donal Henahan had some fun with his review of this production in the New York Times. “Jessye Norman, as the monumentally offended Prima Donna, played Ariadne with a dignified horror that put one in mind of Margaret Dumont trying to ignore a particularly egregious Groucho caper.

“Miss Norman, pacing herself a bit too obviously, as she often does, muted her glorious soprano early in the evening. However, she allowed it to expand to Wagnerian proportions in the final duet a purple-passioned caricature of the High Romantic style. Miss Battle gave a strangely reticent performance, singing half voice much of the time, most frustratingly in Zerbinetta’s coloratura showpiece, ‘Grossmachtige Prinzessin.’ In this aria, one of the most strenuous 10 minutes in all of opera for a light soprano, Miss Battle sang with supple accuracy and grace but rarely with the cutting brilliance and clarity of a true Zerbinetta. One had to conclude that she was either out of sorts or purposely saving voice.”

Sunday, February 7 – Puccini’s Tosca

Conducted by James Conlon; starring Shirley Verrett, Luciano Pavarotti and Cornell MacNeil. This Tito Gobbi production is from the 1978-1979 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was previously made available on June 4th and December 29th.

It is quite likely that Puccini’s Tosca was the first opera to premiere in 1900. Its first performance was on January 14 in Rome. Based on Victorien Sardou’s 1887 play of the same name, Tosca‘s libretto was written by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa.

The setting for Tosca is Rome in 1800. The Napoleonic wars were raging and political unrest was omnipresent. The opera takes place over the course of slightly less than 24 hours. Floria Tosca is the object of Chief of Police Baron Scarpia’s lust. He uses suspicions that her lover, Mario Cavaradossi, aided a political prisoner who has escaped as an opportunity to get him out of his way which will leave Tosca for himself. After capturing Cavaradossi, Scarpia says that if Tosca doesn’t become his lover, he will have Cavaradossi killed.

Donal Henahan, in his New York Times review, praised Verrett’s singing. “Miss Verrett, in appearance the most persuasively starlike Floria Tosca the Met has offered in years, also succeeded in satisfying the purely vocal demands of her role. There was little strain anywhere, and many passages of extraordinarily fine, intelligently nuanced singing.”

He went on to say about Pavarotti, “Mr. Pavarotti, though a bit thin of voice in such outpourings as ‘Recondite armonia,’ pitched himself into the action, vocally and theatrically, with his usual infectious enthusiasm. Puccini is notoriously hard on voices—perhaps more so than Verdi or even Wagner— and Mr. Pavarotti is taking a calculated risk in moving into emotionally heavy and tone‐shredding roles. But his ‘Vittoria!’ rang out excitingly, without sounding strident, and in the lyrical passages he was nothing less than glorious. Bravissimo is not good enough for such singing. How about pavarotissimo?”

That concludes Week 47 at the Met and the first week of their Black History Month series. Next week the Metropolitan Opera continues their celebration of Black History Month with a second week in this series.

Enjoy your week and enjoy the operas!

Photo: Shirley Verrett and Luciano Pavarotti in Tosca (Photo courtesy Met Opera Archives)

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Stars in Signature Roles: Week 38 at the Met https://culturalattache.co/2020/11/30/stars-in-signature-roles-week-38-at-the-met/ https://culturalattache.co/2020/11/30/stars-in-signature-roles-week-38-at-the-met/#respond Mon, 30 Nov 2020 08:01:00 +0000 https://culturalattache.co/?p=11869 Metropolitan Opera Website

November 30th - December 6th

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MGM studios once declared they had “more stars than there are in heaven.” For Week 38 at the Met, the stars are aplenty. Which is a good thing for a week entitled Stars in Signature Roles.

This week you can see and hear Roberto Alagna, Kathleen Battle, Renée Fleming, Elīna Garanča, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Jonas Kaufmann, Anna Netrebko, Jessye Norman, René Pape, Luciano Pavarotti and Leontyne Price.

Each production becomes available at 7:30 PM EDT/4:30 PM PDT on the Metropolitan Opera website. Every opera remains available for 23 hours. They are heavily promoting their Met Stars Live in Concert series and recently announced the cancellation of the full 2020-2021 season, so you’ll have to go past those announcements and promos to find the streaming productions. Schedules and timings may be subject to change.

If you read this column early enough on November 30th, you might still have time to catch the 1994-1995 season production of Simon Boccanegra by Giuseppe Verdi that concludes last week’s Family Drama series. It’s a good lead-in to this week as it features Plácido Domingo and Kiri Te Kanawa.

Here is the full line-up for Week 38 at the Met:

Monday, November 30 – Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin

Conducted by Valery Gergiev; starring Renée Fleming, Ramón Vargas and Dmitri Hvorostovsky. This revival of Robert Carsen’s 1997 production is from the 2006-2007 season.This is an encore presentation of the production that was previously made available on March 22nd.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was inspired by Alexander Pushkin’s verse novel of the same name for this opera that had its world premiere in Moscow in 1879. The composer co-wrote the libretto (using much of Pushkin’s text as written) with Konstantin Shilovsky.

Onegin is a rather selfish man. Tatyana expresses her love for him, but he rejects her saying he isn’t suited to marriage. By the time he comes to regret the way he treated her, he has also come to regret the actions that lead to a duel that killed his best friend.

Anthony Tommasini, in his New York Times review raved, “You will seldom see better acting in opera then the scenes between Ms. Fleming and Mr. Hvorostovsky. With his white mane, commanding physique and earthy voice, Mr. Hvorostovsky projects charisma naturally, making him perfect for this diffident character.

“Everything and everyone seems to come to Onegin, which accounts for his passivity. In the scene in which he gently chastises Tatiana for having sent him a rash love letter, his paternalistic arrogance, as projected by Mr. Hvorostovsky, would have been infuriating had it not seemed so tragically clueless.”

Tuesday, December 1 – Verdi’s Aida

Conducted by James Levine; starring Leontyne Price, Fiorenza Cossotto, James McCracken and Simon Estes. This revival of John Dexter’s 1975 production is from the 1984-1985 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was previously made available on May 1st.

Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida had its world premiere in Cairo in 1871. The libretto is by Antonio Ghislanzoni.

Aida is in love with General Radames and he feels just as passionately about the Ethiopian princess being held captive in Egypt. Radames chooses to wage war against Ethiopia and Aida must reconcile her love for her native land and the General about to wage war against her people.

This video clip does not represent the quality of the film the Met will be streaming. But it does reflect both the power of Leontyne Price and the immense popularity of this particular performance.

This film marked Price’s farewell to opera. From a purely historical perspective, that alone makes this opportunity to see it unmissable. Reviews were mixed on the production, but by the end the ovation Price received acknowledges more than just a production or a performance, but also her career.

As Donal Henahan said in his New York Times review, “The 57-year-old soprano took an act or two to warm to her work, but what she delivered in the Nile Scene turned out to be well worth the wait. In her most taxing aria, ‘O patria mia,’ there were powerful reminders of the Price that we remember best and want to remember, a Price beyond pearls. It was, intermittently but often enough to make the evening a memorable event, the singing of an artist of distinctive vocal timbre and personality.”

Wednesday, December 2 – Wagner’s Parsifal

Conducted by Daniele Gatti; starring Katarina Dalayman, Jonas Kaufmann, Peter Mattei and René Pape. This François Girard production is from the 2012-2013 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was previously made available on April 9th and October 11th.

Richard Wagner was inspired by Wolfram von Eschenbach’s poem about the knight Percival who was in search of the Holy Grail and served at King Arthur’s Round Table. Parsifal was the composer’s last completed opera. It had its world premiere in Bayreuth in 1882. Wagner wrote both the music and the libretto.

Young Parsifal is woefully unaware of right or wrong. He has no concept of sin nor redemption. Raised by his mother, he’s unfamiliar with the ways of the world. He meets one of the Knights of the Grail and is given the opportunity to see the Holy Grail. While at the Castle, he hears King Amfortas, crying in pain. Though Amfortas was given a life of immortality by the Grail, his pain comes from a wound inflicted by Klingsor who took the Holy Spear from the King. Parsifal makes it his mission to return the Spear and destroy Klingsor and his kingdom in order so that the King’s suffering can end.

Anthony Tommasini, in his New York Times review, praised Kaufmann’s performance as the title character. “At 43 Mr. Kaufmann is in his glory, equally adept in German, Italian and French repertory. Handsome and limber, he is a natural onstage. The baritonal colorings of his sound, his clarion top notes, the blend of virility and tenderness in his singing, his refined musicianship — all these strengths come together in his distinctive Parsifal.”

Thursday, December 3 – Verdi’s Macbeth

Conducted by Fabio Luisi; starring Anna Netrebko, Joseph Calleja, Željko Lučić and René Pape. This revival of Adrian Noble’s 2007 production is from the 2014-2015 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was previously made available on April 4th.

William Shakespeare’s Macbeth was the first of his plays to inspire an opera by Giuseppe Verdi. The libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave with additional work by Andrea Maffei. The opera had its world premiere in Florence, Italy in 1847. Verdi re-wroked Macbeth and changed the language from Italian to French. The revised version had its premiere in Paris in 1865.

This is not Shakespeare set to music. Verdi did take much of what Shakespeare wrote about a Scottish general who is told by three witches that he will be the King of Scotland. With the help of his wife, Lady Macbeth, he stops at nothing to do so. However, Verdi couldn’t include the whole play in his opera, nor did he want to. The relationship between Macbeth and Lady MacBeth truly anchors this opera.

This production marked the first time Netrebko had sung the role of Lady Macbeth at the Met. Anthony Tommasini, writing in the New York Times, set up the challenges she was facing. “…the lead soprano role in Verdi’s Macbeth is not just a daunting challenge. For Ms. Netrebko, who turned 43 last week, it represents a shift from the lyric soprano and bel canto roles with which she made her reputation to vocally weightier repertory. Lady Macbeth is particularly risky and demanding.”

He was more than pleased with the result. “The years that Ms. Netrebko spent singing bel canto heroines paid off here in the skillful way she dispatched the trills and runs that Verdi folds into the vocal lines. One such place is the Act II banquet scene after Macbeth, having murdered King Duncan, has been proclaimed the new monarch. Lady Macbeth sings a drinking song, a brindisi, inviting the guests to join in a toast. Yet there was something eerily malevolent in the way this Lady Macbeth tossed off the song with insistent good cheer. Wearing a ruby red evening gown, her eyes wild, Ms. Netrebko almost willed her guests into having a good time, or else.”

Friday, December 4 – Bizet’s Carmen

Conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin; starring Barbara Frittoli, Elīna Garanča, Roberto Alagna and Teddy Tahu Rhodes. This Richard Eyre production is from the 2009-2010 season.

Georges Bizet collaborated with librettists Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy on this immensely popular opera. It was based on Propser Mérimée’s novella of the same name. 

When Carmen was first performed in Paris in 1875 it was considered both shocking and scandalous. 

Set in Seville, Spain, Carmen is a gypsy who has caught everyone’s eye. A soldier, Don José, plays coy and gives her no attention. Her flirtation causes troubles for both when Don José’s girlfriend, Micaëla arrives. Tensions escalate between the two women and after a knight fight, José must arrest Carmen. When she seduces him it sets off a series of events that will not end well for the gypsy woman.

Anthony Tommasini, in his New York Times review raved about this new production. “In the naturalness of the performances, from that of the Latvian mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča in the title role to those of the children in the chorus who scamper into the town square to watch the changing of the guard, it is clear that Mr. Eyre has lavished attention on everyone. The singers benefited immensely from the work of the rising 34-year-old Canadian conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, in his Met debut, who led a bracing, fleet and fresh account of the score, although he started the rousing prelude at a breakneck, frenetic tempo.”

Saturday, December 5 – Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos

Conducted by James Levine; starring Jessye Norman, Kathleen Battle and Tatiana Troyanos. This revival of Carl Ebert’s 1962 production is from the 1987-1988 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was previously made available on May 13th.

Richard Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos had its world premiere in Stuttgart in 1912. The libretto is by Hugo von Hofmannsthal.

This is really an opera-within-an-opera. Two different sets of performers have been brought together at the home of a rich man. One group is a serious ensemble of opera singers who embrace the highest of dramatic operas. The other is a group of comedians who are set on acting out an Italian comedy. Their host, seeing that time is quickly running out, asks them to perform their separate works together.

Many critics believe the opening 40-minute prologue is vastly superior to the rest of the work.

Obviously having Norman and Battle in an opera together is reason enough to watch Ariadne auf Naxos. But here’s some trivia you might not know: Barbara Bonney (in her Metropolitan Opera debut) and Dawn Upshaw play nymphs in this production.

Sunday, December 6 – Puccini’s Tosca

Conducted by James Conlon; starring Shirley Verrett, Luciano Pavarotti and Cornell MacNeil. This Tito Gobbi production is from the 1978-1979 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was previously made available on June 4th.

It is quite likely that Puccini’s Tosca was the first opera to premiere in 1900. Its first performance was on January 14 in Rome. Based on Victorien Sardou’s 1887 play of the same name, Tosca‘s libretto was written by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa.

The setting for Tosca is Rome in 1800. The Napoleonic wars were raging and political unrest was omnipresent. The opera takes place over the course of slightly less than 24 hours. Floria Tosca is the object of Chief of Police Baron Scarpia’s lust. He uses suspicions that her lover, Mario Cavaradossi, aided a political prisoner who has escaped as an opportunity to get him out of his way which will leave Tosca for himself. After capturing Cavaradossi, Scarpia says that if Tosca doesn’t become his lover, he will have Cavaradossi killed.

When Pavarotti took on this role it was one of his first forays into more demanding roles that were tougher on his vocal chords.

Donal Henahan, had this to say about Pavarotti in his New York Times review, “Mr. Pavarotti, though a bit thin of voice in such outpourings as ‘Recondite armonia,’ pitched himself into the action, vocally and theatrically, with his usual infectious enthusiasm. Puccini is notoriously hard on voices—perhaps more so than Verdi or even Wagner— and Mr. Pavarotti is taking a calculated risk in moving into emotionally heavy and tone‐shredding roles. But his ‘Vittoria!’ rang out excitingly, without sounding strident, and in the lyrical passages he was nothing less than glorious. Bravissimo is not good enough for such singing. How about pavarotissimo?”

Which star and opera most appeals to you about Week 38 at the Met? Whichever opera or stars you choose, enjoy yourself!

Photo: Anna Netrebko, René Pape and Željko Lučić in Macbeth (Photo by Marty Sohl/Courtesy Metropolitan Opera)

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Week 34 at the Met https://culturalattache.co/2020/11/02/week-34-at-the-met/ https://culturalattache.co/2020/11/02/week-34-at-the-met/#respond Mon, 02 Nov 2020 08:01:00 +0000 https://culturalattache.co/?p=11389 Metropolitan Opera Website

November 2nd - November 8th

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Week 34 at the Met is the first of a two-week series they are calling From the Baroque to the Present: A Two-Week Tour of Opera History.

This week’s series launches with a work by George Frideric Handel from 1725 and concludes with a work by Richard Wagner from 1868 (in a production that hasn’t been streamed yet).

Each production becomes available at 7:30 PM EDT/4:30 PM PDT on the Metropolitan Opera website. Every opera remains available for 23 hours. They are heavily promoting their Met Stars Live in Concert series and recently announced the cancellation of the full 2020-2021 season, so you’ll have to go past those announcements and promos to find the streaming productions. Schedules and timings may be subject to change.

If you read this column early enough on November 2nd, you might still have time to catch the 2011-2012 season production of Satyagraha that concludes last week’s Politics in Opera series. 

Monday, November 2 – Handel’s Rodelinda

Conducted by Harry Bicket; starring Renée Fleming, Stephanie Blythe, Andreas Scholl, Iestyn Davies, Joseph Kaiser and Shenyang. This revival of Stephen Wadsworth’s 2004 production is from the 2011-2012 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was previously available on June 14th.

Handel’s opera had its world premiere in London in 1725. The libretto is by Nicola Francesco Haym who revised Antonio Salvi’s earlier libretto. Scholars have long considered Rodelinda to be amongst Handel’s finest works.

Queen Rodelinda’s husband has been vanquished and she is plotting her revenge. Multiple men have plans to take over the throne, but they have Rodelinda to contend with who is maneuvering herself to prevent that from happening. She is still faithful to her husband who is presumed dead.

Fleming and Blythe appeared at the Met in these role in the first revival of this production in 2006.

James R. Oestreich, in his review for the New York Times, said of Fleming’s return to Rodelinda, “But it would be asking too much of a singer like Ms. Fleming to revamp her technique in midcareer, so there was inevitably some disjunction between stage and pit. Ms. Fleming painted her coloratura in broad strokes, but it was enough that she threw herself and her voice wholeheartedly into the considerable drama.”

Tuesday, November 3 – Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice

Conducted by James Levine; starring Danielle de Niese, Heidi Grant Murphy and Stephanie Blythe. This Mark Morris production is from the 2008-2009 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was previously available on June 3rd.

Once again the myth of Orpheus inspired a composer. Christoph Willibald Gluck’s opera, which premiered in Vienna in 1762, has a libretto by Ranieri de’ Calzabigi. (Others who have been so inspired include Haydn, Lizst and Stravinsky. The story is also the inspiration for the Tony Award-winning musical Hadestown.)

The Orpheus story is about a man who suddenly loses the love of his life, Euridice. He travels to the underworld to find her. He can bring her back, but only if he truly trusts in her love.

Anthony Tomassini, in his New York Times review of this production, began his review with singular praise for Blythe: “With each performance the American mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe gives, it becomes increasingly apparent that a once-in-a-generation opera singer has arrived. Ms. Blythe’s latest triumph came on Friday night at the Metropolitan Opera: a vocally commanding and deeply poignant portrayal of Orfeo in a revival of Mark Morris’s 2007 production of Gluck’s sublime masterpiece Orfeo ed Euridice. This was Ms. Blythe’s first performance of Orfeo, a touchstone trouser role for many mezzo-sopranos, and she already owns it.”

Wednesday, November 4 – Mozart’s Idomeneo

Conducted by James Levine; starring Nadine Sierra, Elza van den Heever, Alice Coote, and Matthew Polenzani. This revival of the 1982 Jean-Pierre Ponnelle production from the 2016-2017 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was previously available on May 18th and October 4th.

Mozart’s opera had its world premiere in 1781 in Munich and has a libretto by Giambattista Varesco. 

Idomeneo tells the story of Idomeneus, the King of Crete, who in order to survive at sea promises Poseidon he will kill the first man he sees upon being rescued. His son, Idamante, learns that his father is in serious danger and fears he has perished. Mourning his father at the beach, he is overjoyed to see that he has survived. But in doing so becomes the first man his father sees. That’s when the story gets good!

George Grella, writing in New York Classic Review, said of Nadine Sierra’s performance, “Her voice balanced youthful shine and, just under the surface, deep feeling. She was incandescent all night, singing with great ease and richness, and modulating naturally between moods of loss, love, regret, and pride.”

Thursday, November 5 – Rossini’s Semiramide

Conducted by Maurizio Benini; starring Angela Meade, Elizabeth DeShong, Javier Camarena, Ildar Abdrazakov and Ryan Speedo Green. This is a revival of John Copley’s 1990 production from the 2017-2018 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was previously available on June 16th.

Voltaire’s Semiramis was the inspiration this Rossini opera. The libretto is by Gaetano Rossi. Semiramide had its world premiere in 1823 in Venice. This was the composer’s final Italian opera.

Queen Semiramide is a troubled and complicated woman. She and her lover, Assur, killed her husband, King Nino. Their son, Ninius, disappears and is presumed dead as Semiramide ascends to the throne. Years later she becomes enamored with a young warrior named Arsace. Guess who he turns out to be?

David Wright, writing in New York Classical Review, raved about Meade’s performance.

“Soprano Angela Meade anchored the cast with a fearless performance in the title role of the morally compromised and lovestruck queen, issuing a blizzard of sixteenth and thirty-second notes and dizzying leaps with expressive power to back them up.”

Friday, November 6 – Verdi’s La Forza del Destino

Conducted by James Levine; starring Leontyne Price, Giuseppe Giacomini, Leo Nucci and Bonaldo Giaiotti. This John Dexter production is from the 1983-1984 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was previously available on June 18th and 19th.

This frequently performed Verdi opera had its world premiere in 1862 in St. Petersburg, Russia. The libretto is by Francesco Maria Piave, based on an 1835 Spanish drama, Don Álvaro o la fuerza del sino by Ángel de Saavedra.

Leonora is the daughter of the Marquis of Calatrava. She falls in love with Don Alvaro, but her father is dead-set against their getting married. A tragedy befalls all three leaving Leonora to find solace in a monastery.

This was one of Price’s greatest roles throughout her career. Bernard Holland, writing in the New York Times, raved about her performance.

“This was truly Miss Price’s evening. There were some jolting shifts of register, and Miss Price must protect her fragile upper notes with tender care; but her dramatic presence on stage and the overall impact of her singing went far beyond matters of technique. ‘Madre, pietosa Vergine’ had a stunning muted eloquence, and ‘Pace, pace, mio Dio!’ at the end had a sonorous beauty and power of communication that this listener – and I think everyone else in attendance – will think back upon for many years to come.”

Saturday, November 7 – Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette

Conducted by Plácido Domingo; starring Anna Netrebko, Roberto Alagna, Nathan Gunn and Robert Lloyd. This revival of Guy Joosten’s 2005 production is from the 2007-2008 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was previously available on July 23rd.

Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet served as the inspiration for this five-act opera by Charles Gounod that had its world premiere in Paris in 1867. The libretto was written by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré.

The opera closely follows Shakespeare’s play about two star-crossed lovers from warring families. Their love only inflames the animosity between the Montagues and the Capulets. No matter what the young lovers do to be together, fate always seems to find a way to make their love impossible. When that happens, tragedy follows.

In her review for the New York Times, Anne Midgette said of the two leads: 

“You are not going to hear much better singing than this today. True, Anna Netrebko and Roberto Alagna can both be faulted. She is a little wild, flinging herself into roles and about the stage (especially, on Tuesday, at her first entrance); he has a certain emotional bluntness, and a certain monochrome tone. So much for the obligatory criticism. The bottom line is that Ms. Netrebko produced a luscious sound that you wanted to bathe in forever, especially in her first-act duet with Mr. Alagna. The ultimate measure for a singer should be, Is this a sound you want to listen to? The answer here was yes.”

Sunday, November 8 – Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg – March 28th

Conducted by James Levine; starring Annette Dasch, Johan Botha, Paul Appleby and Michael Volle. This revival of Otto Shenk’s 1993 production is from the 2014-2015 season.

Richard Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg had its world premiere in Munich is 1868. As with his other works, Wagner wrote the libretto. It is also a rare comedy from the composer. The opera is one of Wagner’s longest running nearly four-and-a-half hours.

At stake in the opera is the love of a young girl named Eva. She has been betrothed to whomever wins a singing contest. Walther von Stolzing is desperately in love with Eva and wants to compete, but the song he wants to sing doesn’t conform to the rules set out by the competition. With the help of a cobbler named Hans Sachs, he hopes to overcome the opposition to him, win the contest and ultimately marry Eva.

In his review for the New York Times, Anthony Tommasini raved about Johan Botha in the role of Walther. “The powerful tenor Johan Botha has excelled in the demanding role of Walther, the restless knight who has come to Nuremberg, where he instantly falls for Eva, the lovely daughter of Pogner, the wealthy goldsmith. He did so again on this night. Mr. Botha has a very hefty physique. He does not cut the figure of the dashing young knight of Wagner’s imagination. Yet he sang with so much romantic allure and freshness, especially during the glorious ‘Morning Dream Song’ (as Sachs names it), that Mr. Botha seemed the essence of a young man in love.”

That’s the full line-up for Week 34 at the Met – our first half of the Two-Week Tour of Opera History. Next week’s operas begin with a work by Tchaikovsky from 1892 and concludes with an opera from 2016 composed by Adés.

Enjoy the operas and enjoy your week.

Photo: Stephanie Blythe in Orfeo ed Eridice (Photo by Ken Howard/Courtesy Metropolitan Opera)

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Week 14 at the Met – UPDATED https://culturalattache.co/2020/06/15/week-14-at-the-met/ https://culturalattache.co/2020/06/15/week-14-at-the-met/#respond Mon, 15 Jun 2020 13:00:00 +0000 https://culturalattache.co/?p=9375 Metropolitan Opera Website

June 15th - June 21st

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Update: The Metropolitan Opera changed this week’s schedule and are now running “La Forza Del Destino” for two nights. This moves the Philip Glass operas back one day each. “La Traviata” will now air next week. The dates below reflect the changed schedule.

It’s Monday and time for Week 14 at the Met. Philip Glass and Gioachino Rossini fans are going to be very happy this week. The nightly Met Opera streaming productions include two of each composer’s works.

Every opera becomes available at 7:30 PM EDT/4:30 PM PDT at the Metropolitan Opera’s website. Schedule and start times are subject to change.

If you are reading this on Monday early enough in the day you might still catch Handel’s Rodelina starring Renée Fleming until 6:30 PM EDT/3:30 PM PDT.

Here is the line-up for Week 14 at the Met:

Monday, June 15 – Rossini’s Armida

Conducted by Riccardo Frizza; starring Renée Fleming, Lawrence Brownlee, John Osborn, Barry Banks and Kobie van Rensburg. This Mary Zimmerman production is from the 2009-2010 season.

This infrequently performed opera by Rossini had its world premiere in 1817 in Naples, Italy. The librettist is Giovanni Schmidt who used Toarquato Tasso’s Gerusalemme liberata as the inspiration.

This Met Opera production marked the first time Armida was performed at the Met.

Set during the Crusades, Armida (Fleming) is in love with a soldier named Rinaldo (Brownlee). He’s a knight and is itching to go to war. Rinaldo is unaware that Armida’s passion for him dates back to their first meeting years ago. As war looms, she makes Rinaldo very aware of the role she played in saving his life shortly after they met.

In an interview with Studs Terkel, Fleming spoke about her desire to sing this role and when it became a reality in 1993.

“This was one of my Cinderella moments. …There was a cancellation and Luigi Ferrari of the Pesaro Festival was frantically looking for someone to replace–because Armida is a big, virtuosic part that Maria Callas made famous. And nobody really wants to follow in her footsteps unless you are really confident. And I decided to audition for it. He had heard about me from, I think, Marilyn Horne of – amongst other people – and went and auditioned for him and got the job and learned the role in two weeks. And performed it then a month later.”

Tuesday, June 16 – Rossini’s Semiramide

Conducted by Maurizio Benini; starring Angela Meade, Elizabeth DeShong, Javier Camarena, Ildar Abdrazakov and Ryan Speedo Green. This is a revival of John Copley’s 1990 production from the 2017-2018 season.

Voltaire’s Semiramis was the inspiration this Rossini opera. The libretto is by Gaetano Rossi. Semiramide had its world premiere in 1823 in Venice. This was the composer’s final Italian opera.

Queen Semiramide (Meade) is a troubled and complicated woman. She and her lover, Assur (Abdrazakov), killed her husband, King Nino. Their son, Ninius, disappears and is presumed dead as Semiramide ascends to the throne. Years later she becomes enamored with a young warrior named Arsace (DeShong). Guess who he turns out to be?

David Wright, writing in New York Classical Review, raved about Meade’s performance.

“Soprano Angela Meade anchored the cast with a fearless performance in the title role of the morally compromised and lovestruck queen, issuing a blizzard of sixteenth and thirty-second notes and dizzying leaps with expressive power to back them up.”

Wednesday, June 17 – Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride

Conducted by Patrick Summers; starring Susan Graham, Plácido Domingo and Paul Groves. This is a revival of the 2007 Stephen Wadsworth production from the 2010-2011 season.

Christoph Willibald Gluck’s 1779 opera features a libretto by Nicolas-François Guillard. The opera had its world premiere in Paris.

A storm is raging on the island of Tauris. Iphigenia (Graham) and Diana (the goddess) beg for relief from the storm. But the bigger storm brewing is the one inside Iphigenia who longs to be reunited with her brother, Orest (Domingo), whom she believes to be dead after her mother killed her father and Orest killed their mother in revenge. Iphigenia must navigate what the gods want as she tries to quiet her pain.

The 2007 production of this opera marked the first time in 90 years that Gluck’s opera was performed at the Metropolitan Opera. Both Graham and Domingo were in that production, too. Zachary Woolfe, writing for the New York Times, said of the production being offered, “An impassioned revival with those singers, which opened Saturday evening, confirms that there is no reason for this radiant opera not to be a repertory staple.”

Thursday, June 18 and Friday, June 19 – Verdi’s La Forza del Destino

Conducted by James Levine; starring Leontyne Price, Giuseppe Giacomini, Leo Nucci and Bonaldo Giaiotti. This John Dexter production is from the 1983-1984 season.

This frequently performed Verdi opera had its world premiere in 1862 in St. Petersburg, Russia. The libretto is by Francesco Maria Piave, based on an 1835 Spanish drama, Don Álvaro o la fuerza del sino by Ángel de Saavedra.

Leonora (Price) is the daughter of the Marquis of Calatrava (Nucci). She falls in love with Don Alvaro (Giacomini), but her father is dead-set against their getting married. A tragedy befalls all three leaving Leonora to find solace in a monastery.

This was one of Price’s greatest roles throughout her career. Bernard Holland, writing in the New York Times raved about her performance.

“This was truly Miss Price’s evening. There were some jolting shifts of register, and Miss Price must protect her fragile upper notes with tender care; but her dramatic presence on stage and the overall impact of her singing went far beyond matters of technique. ‘Madre, pietosa Vergine’ had a stunning muted eloquence, and ‘Pace, pace, mio Dio!’ at the end had a sonorous beauty and power of communication that this listener – and I think everyone else in attendance – will think back upon for many years to come.”

Saturday, June 20th – Philip Glass’s Akhnaten

Conducted by Karen Kamensek; starring Dísella Lárusdóttir, J’Nai Bridges, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Aaron Blake, Will Liverman, Richard Bernstein and Zachary James. This Phelim McDermott production is from the 2019-2020.

Akhnaten is one of Glass’s three biographical operas (the others are Einstein on the Beach and Saturday’s opera, Satyagraha.) The composer also wrote the libretto with the assistance of Shalom Goldman, Robert Israel, Richard Riddell and Jerome Robbins.

Akhnaten (Costanzo) was a pharaoh who was controversial for his views on worshipping more than one God. He suggested just worshipping one – the sun. He was husband to Nefertitti and father of Tutankhamun. This opera does not have a linear storyline.

In his New York Times review, Anthony Tommasini praised the leads:

“Wearing gauzy red robes with extravagantly long trains, Mr. Costanzo and Ms. Bridges seem at once otherworldly and achingly real. His ethereal tones combine affectingly with her plush, deep-set voice. Ms. Kamensek, while keeping the orchestra supportive, brings out the restless rhythmic elements that suggest the couple’s intensity.”

I’ve seen this production with Costanzo singing the title role and cannot recommend taking the time to watch Akhnaten highly enough.

Sunday, June 21 – Philip Glass’s Satyagraha

Conducted by Dante Anzolini; starring Rachelle Durkin, Richard Croft, Kim Josephson and Alfred Walker. This is a revival of Phelim McDermott’s 2008 production from the 2011-2012 season.

The life of Gandhi (Croft) is depicted in this Glass opera that goes backwards and forwards through time as a way to examine his life in South Africa and leading to his belief in non-violent protests. Sung in Sanskrit with projected titles on the stage itself, this is one unique opera that is staged beautifully and powerfully.

Tommasini’s New York Times review of this Glass opera says how its unique structure works in Satyagraha‘s favor:

Satyagraha invites you to turn off the part of your brain that looks for linear narrative and literal meaning in a musical drama and enter a contemplative state — not hard to do during the most mesmerizing parts of the opera, especially in this sensitive performance.”

I’ve also seen this production and would challenge anyone to get to Satyagraha‘s final aria, “Evening Song,” and not be utterly moved.

PUSHED TO NEXT WEEK – Verdi’s La Traviata

Conducted by Nicola Luisotti; starring Sonya Yoncheva, Michael Fabiano and Thomas Hampson. This is a revival of the 2011 Willy Decker production from the 2016-2017 season.

La Traviata is one of the world’s most performed operas. Verdi collaborated with librettist Francesco Maria Piave on this opera inspired by a play (La Dame aux camélias) that was itself inspired by the novel fils by Alexandre Dumas. The opera had its world premiere in 1853 in Venice.

Like many good love stories, this one does not end well. Violetta (Yoncheva) is in love with Alfredo Germont (Fabiano). His father (Hampson) demands that she give up on her one-true love and that leads to devastating consequences.

Zachary Woolfe raved about Yoncheva in the New York Times after seeing this production.

“Ms. Yoncheva is now the one I’d seek out, no matter what she does. (And she does most everything: This “Traviata” comes in the wake of both Bellini’s mighty “Norma” and a Handel album.)

“A few years ago, Ms. Yoncheva had an essentially slender soprano focused enough to penetrate the vast Met. Now she fills the opera house more easily, with a tone that’s simultaneously softer and stronger, less angled and more rounded. New strength in the lower reaches of her voice anchored “Addio del passato,” the final-act lament of the doomed courtesan Violetta.”

This is the second production of La Traviata shown by the Metropolitan Opera during these streaming productions. The previous production, starring Natalie Dessay in 2012, was also a revival of the 2011 production.

That’s it for Week 14 at the Met. Let us know what you think of this week’s offerings.

Main photo: Anthony Roth Costanzo in the title role of Glass’s Akhnaten. (Photo by Karen Almond/Courtesy of the Met Opera)

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Week 8 at the Met https://culturalattache.co/2020/05/04/week-8-at-the-met/ https://culturalattache.co/2020/05/04/week-8-at-the-met/#comments Mon, 04 May 2020 13:00:50 +0000 https://culturalattache.co/?p=8847 Met Opera Website

May 4th - May 10th

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There are multiple highlights during Week 8 at the Met. Renée Fleming appears in two productions with one of them also featuring Cecilia Barotli and Sir Bryn Terfel. Luciano Pavarotti stars in a historic production of La Bohème. There is also an opera by Kaija Saariaho from 2000 and a rarely performed opera based on Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

All productions can be found at the Metropolitan Opera’s website. Each opera becomes available at 7:30 PM EDT/4:30 PM PDT on their respective dates and will remain available for streaming for 23 hours.

Here is the complete list of productions for Week 8 at the Met:

Monday, May 4 – Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro

Conducted by James Levine, starring Renée Fleming, Cecilia Bartoli, Susanne Mentzer, Dwayne Croft, and Sir Bryn Terfel. This production dates back to 1998.

Bernard Holland, reviewing for the New York Times said of this production, directed by Jonathan Miller, “One cannot say enough about the septet ending Act II and the final ensemble of Act IV: episodes in which theater and music merged as they rarely do, and where each player was made exquisitely aware of every other. Mozart operas move on the wheels of their ensembles, and Mr. Miller — with no coups de theatre and many acts of self-effacing care — made them turn.”

Tuesday, May 5 – Thomas’s Hamlet

Conducted by Louis Langrée, starring Marlis Petersen, Jennifer Larmore, Simon Keenlyside, and James Morris. This production took place in 2010.

French composer Charles Louis Ambroise Thomas is not the best known of opera composers. Over a two-year period he wrote the two operas for which he’s best known: Mignon and Hamlet.

Of Hamlet, many critics ultimately found that perhaps Thomas was biting off more than he could chew by taking Shakespeare’s play as the basis for this opera. But George Loomis, writing for The Classical Review said of this production, “…it is safe to say that many who witnessed the premiere of the Metropolitan Opera’s fascinating new production of Hamlet on Tuesday evening found the experience closer to watching the Shakespeare play than they ever thought possible. Thomas may have been audacious in his choice of subject, but he also took his musical-dramatic task seriously.”

Wednesday, May 6 – Saariaho’s  L’Amour de Loin

Conducted by Susanna Mälkki, starring Susanna Phillips, Tamara Mumford, and Eric Owens. This production took place in 2016.

L’amour de Loin tells the story of a troubadour who has a pre-determined idea of what perfect love would be. But he is convinced he will never find it. Once he’s told by a newly-arrived pilgrim that his love does indeed exist, he becomes hopeful. Simultaneously a lovelorn countess is told of a man whose view of love is just what she’s desiring. Can love work between the two?

Kaija Saariaho’s opera, with a libretto by Amin Maalouf, had its world premiere at the Salzburg Festival in August of 2000. This production marked the first opera written by a woman to be staged at the Met since 1903. With Mälkki conducting, it became the first opera written by a woman and conducted bya woman as part of the Met Opera Live broadcasts. At the time, Mälkki was only the fourth woman to conduct performances at the famed opera house.

Thursday, May 7 – R. Strauss’s Capriccio

Conducted by Sir Andrew Davis, starring Renée Fleming, Sarah Connolly, Joseph Kaiser, Russell Braun, Morten Frank Larsen, and Peter Rose. This production dates back to 2011.

When Fleming decided to do the role of the Countess in this opera by Strauss in 2011, it was the first time she had performed the full opera at the Met. Anthony Tomassini of the New York Times was impressed. “The role suits her ideally at this stage of her career, and she sang splendidly. The performance over all, sensitively conducted by Andrew Davis and featuring a winning cast, made an excellent case for this Strauss curiosity, his final opera, which had its premiere in Munich in 1942 in the midst of World War II.”

As the Countess, Fleming must make one decision that resonates in a second way. Does she prefer words or music? And by extension, does she prefer the poet or the composer that make up the love triangle in this opera.

Friday, May 8 – Puccini’s La Bohème

Conducted by James Levine, starring Renata Scotto and Luciano Pavarotti. This production took place in 1977.

This 1977 production of Puccini’s beloved opera was actually the first Live at the Met broadcast. That it starred two of the biggest names in opera at the time probably had something to do with La Bohème being the first of what became hundreds of broadcasts. Pavarotti made his Met Opera debut in 1968 in La Bohème.

The inclusion of this particular production is part of the Met Opera’s Viewer’s Choice.

Saturday, May 9 – The Opera House

Rather than show another opera production, the Met Opera is showing this 2017 documentary. It’s a fascinating look at everything it took to build the Met at Lincoln Center in the 1960s. By extension, Susan Froemke’s film also looks at what life was like, both politically and artistically, at the time. Amongst the people contributing to the documentary was soprano Leontyne Price.

May 9th would have been the final performance of the 2019-2020 Met Opera season.

Sunday, May 10 – Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci

Two commonly paired one-act operas from 2015 close out the week in performances: Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci. Both operas are conducted by Fabio Luisi.

Cavalleria Rusticana stars Eva-Maria Westbroek, Marcelo Álvarez, and George Gagnidze. 

Pagliacci stars Patricia Racette, Marcelo Álvarez, and George Gagnidze.

There was controversy surrounding these two productions when David McVicar’s productions replaced the long-performed productions by Franco Zeffirelli. Alex Ross, writing for The New Yorker made the case for the new productions as a way for the Met Opera to continue to grow and evolve.

For those relatively new to opera, these two one-act productions are easy ways to explore the art form. There is well-known music, but there is more. Pagliacci is not just a commonly performed opera, it is also one that is referenced in countless films and television shows. But don’t count out Cavalleria Rusticana. If you’ve seen either Raging Bull or The Godfather III, you’ll recognize this opera, too.

Those are your choices for Week 8 at the Met. What would you like to see in Week 9 or 10? Let us know.

Photo: Tamara Mumford, Eric Owens and Susanna Phillips in L’Amour de Loin. (Photo by Ken Howard/Courtesy of Met Opera)

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Week 7 at the Met https://culturalattache.co/2020/04/26/week-7-at-the-met/ https://culturalattache.co/2020/04/26/week-7-at-the-met/#comments Sun, 26 Apr 2020 20:48:26 +0000 https://culturalattache.co/?p=8741 Met Opera Website

April 27th - May 3rd

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Did you catch the Metropolitan Opera’s At-Home Gala this weekend? It was so well-produced with live performances from all over the world. And it was very emotional, too. Now with Monday back again, they launch Week 7 at the Met of operas available every night on their website.

There are significant highlights this week. Topping my list is Nico Muhly‘s Marnie. There is also a 1985 telecast of Verdi’s Aida starring Leontyne Price. You can also watch Donizetti’s Tudor Trilogy.

Here’s the line-up and remember that each opera becomes available at 7:30 PM EDT/4:30 PDT and will remain available for free streaming for 23 hours.

Monday, April 27 – Donizetti’s Anna Bolena

Conducted by Marco Armiliato, starring Anna Netrebko, Ekaterina Gubanova, Stephen Costello, and Ildar Abdrazakov.

This production was the first time the Metropolitan Opera performed Anna Bolena in all its history. It was, however, the second time Netrebko had performed the role having sung it in Vienna earlier that year. The title, of course, is Italian for Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII’s second wife.

Tuesday, April 28 – Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda

Conducted by Maurizio Benini, starring Elza van den Heever, Joyce DiDonato, and Matthew Polenzani.

Mary, Queen of Scots, is the central figure in this opera written by Donizetti that had its world premiere in 1835. The libretto Guiseppe Bardari, was based on Friedrich von Schiller’s play, Mary Stuart, from 1800.

Of DiDonato’s performance in the title role, Anthony Tommasini of the New York Times said, “Ms. DiDonato’s performance will be pointed to as a model of singing in which all components of the art form — technique, sound, color, nuance, diction — come together in service to expression and eloquence.”

Wednesday, April 29 – Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux

Conducted by Maurizio Benini, starring Sondra Radvanovsky, Elīna Garanča, Matthew Polenzani, and Mariusz Kwiecien.

Roberto Devereux was the last opera LA Opera performed before the pandemic forced closure of venues around the world. Donizetti’s opera had its world premiere in 1837. The title character was the 2nd Earl of Essex and served in the court of Queen Elizabeth the 1st.

It should be noted that all three of these productions were directed by David McVicar. Also worth mention is that when Radvanovsky sang in this production, she had also performed the two previous Donizetti operas in this informal trilogy in the same season at the Met.

Thursday, April 30 – Nico Muhly’s Marnie

Conducted by Roberto Spano, starring Isabel Leonard, Iestyn Davies, and Christopher Maltman.

If the title, Marnie, sounds familiar, this is based on the same novel by Winston Graham that inspired Alfred Hitchcock’s 1964 film. The title character is a woman who steals from people, changes her identity and quickly moves on to other victims. Until an employer catches her and blackmails her.

Muhly’s opera, with a libretto by Nicholas Wright, had its world premiere at the English National Opera in 2017. Nearly a year later it had its US premiere in this production at the Metropolitan Opera.

I’m a huge fan of Muhly’s work and I hope the Met Opera will soon make available his opera Two Boys which has a libretto by playwright Craig Lucas.

Friday, May 1 – Verdi’s Aida

Conducted by James Levine, starring Leontyne Price, Fiorenza Cossotto, James McCracken, and Simon Estes. This video clip does not represent the quality of the film the Met will be streaming. But it does reflect the power of Leontyne Price.

This film marked Price’s farewell to opera. From a purely historical perspective, that alone makes this opportunity to see it unmissable. Reviews were mixed on the production, but by the end the ovation Price received acknowledges more than just a production or a performance, but also her career.

Saturday, May 2 – Verdi’s Luisa Miller

Conducted by Bertrand de Billy, starring Sonya Yoncheva, Piotr Beczała, and Plácido Domingo.

Luisa Miller was Verdi’s 15th opera. Like Maria Stuarda, the composer turned to Friedrich von Schiller for inspiration. His work, Kabale und Liebe, was the basis for Salvadore Cammarano’s libretto. The opera had its world premiere in 1849.

For those who miss seeing and hearing Domingo, the tenor-turned-baritone received rave reviews for his performance in what he said was his 149th new role in opera.

Sunday, May 3 – Borodin’s Prince Igor

Conducted by Gianandrea Noseda, starring Oksana Dyka, Anita Rachvelishvili, and Ildar Abdrazakov.

This 2014 production marked the first time in nearly 100 years that Prince Igor had been performed at the Met. It was a new production directed by Dmitri Tcherniakov who also designed the sets.

Borodin based his opera on The Lay of Igor’s Host, a poem scholars believe dates back to the 12th century. The composer died before completing the opera and the work was ultimately finished and edited by composers Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov. Prince Igor had its world premiere in 1890 in St. Petersburg three years after Borodin’s death.

Tommasini of the New York Times included this production on his list of 10 Best Classical Music Events of 2014.

As you can see, Week 7 at the Met is indeed an exciting one.

Photo: Isabel Leonard (center) in the title role of Nico Muhly’s Marnie with (l. to r.) Dísella Lárusdóttir, Deanna Breiwick, Peabody Southwell, and Rebecca Ringle Kamarei. (Photo by Ken Howard/Courtesy of the Met Opera)

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Experiencing Love & Happiness with John Holiday https://culturalattache.co/2019/06/20/experiencing-love-happiness-with-john-holiday/ https://culturalattache.co/2019/06/20/experiencing-love-happiness-with-john-holiday/#respond Thu, 20 Jun 2019 17:28:24 +0000 https://culturalattache.co/?p=5932 "I believe my job as an artist is to be who I am with fierce joy and love. And I hope that the audience will see that emanating from the stage."

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If your main exposure to singing is a place like Ellen’s Stardust Diner in Manhattan, you’d be forgiven for thinking a countertenor is the waiter who just served your breakfast and then sang like Frankie Valli. But in the world of professional singing, a countertenor is an adult male singer with the highest singing voice. These are not singers who use their falsetto, but rather men who can naturally sing at this high pitch. One such countertenor is John Holiday. On Friday night he brings his show, The John Holiday Experience: Love & Happiness to The Sorting Room at The Wallis in Beverly Hills.

Holiday was the winner of the 2017 Marian Anderson Vocal Award. The website for the award says the honor “celebrates excellence in performance by recognizing a young American singer who has achieved initial professional success in the area of opera, oratorio, or recital repertory, and who exhibits promise for a significant career.”

He made his LA Opera debut in 2014’s Dido & Aeneas. He’s equally adept at tackling classic countertenor roles in operas by Handel & Vivaldi and newer works by Philip Glass and Huang Ruo. He will also be involved with Matthew Aucoin’s Eurydice when it makes its world premiere at LA Opera in February. (And don’t ask, he won’t reveal any details about that work.)

When I recently spoke with Holiday by phone he revealed that his show will include not just operatic material, but also songs that run the gamut from jazz to spirituals and gospel.

When looking at a list of notable roles for countertenors, it seems like Handel was the main writer of those roles and then they fall off. But the mid-20th century forward composers seem to have rediscovered countertenors. Why do you think the last 75 years have been so good to people who sing in this register?

I think particularly because we have had such a resurgence with fantastic countertenor singers like Alfred Deller, David Daniels, Andreas Scholl and Derek Lee Ragin who has been such a huge inspiration for me. These countertenors have really made it possible for a lot of the countertenors you see out there today.

Or have composers embraced countertenors? David Daniels complained in 2004 that composers don’t write full-boded masculine roles for countertenors as Handel did.

John Holiday performs Friday at The Wallis in Beverly Hills
Countertenor John Holiday

I don’t know that I would agree or disagree. I think David is entitled to have his opinions, so I don’t want to negate anything he said. I can tell you the role of the Refugee in Jonathan Dove’s Flight, that is a full-boded masculine role. What’s masculine and what’s not masculine? Who is the arbiter of what is masculine and feminine? Can you have both? I believe a character is what a character wants to be and it will change from person to person. It may be more masculine for some and more feminine for others. All I am concerned with specifically is that I get the pleasure and joy of playing these fantastic characters.

How did you upbringing influence the show you are doing at The Wallis?

I came up with this idea because I am often in conversations with people in my community and family members about opera. Sometimes there’s a fear they won’t understand what’s going on on stage. I wanted to build a bridge between my community and other communities of color and give them a way into classical music.  I come from a background in the church and I sing jazz and soul. Why not do a show singing classical music and jazz? You’ll see me go into spirituals and gospel music, too. As [opera singer] Leontyne Price would say, “that’s my roots.”

If people only see you in a show like Love and Happiness, what do you hope they will learn about who you are as a performer and as a man?

That I love fiercely and that everyone deserves to be loved. Oh God, I get emotional talking about this. Love is around you and near you and close by you if only you open your eyes and hearts. One of the things I love is sharing unashamedly every ounce of who I am. I believe my job as an artist is to be who I am with fierce joy and love. And I hope that the audience will see that emanating from the stage.

Countertenors are faced with stereotypes about being feminine, about being castrated (which is wholly untrue) and more. What should we know about countertenors?

I believe that every countertenor loves the music they sing. That we all have a love for it. I think we all have the genuine desire to allow the music to speak for itself and the character to live and to be who and how and what and where it wants to be.

Growing up I was chastised by other kids for being feminine and I still don’t think I am. But if I were, what’s the problem with it? I know countertenors who are very muscular. I’m not bench-pressing 350 pounds, but I am strong in other ways.

John Holiday is a countertenor
John Holiday

As an African-American countertenor who is also gay, how important is it for you to be the source of visibility for others like yourself?

You are going to make me cry. It’s one of the reasons I’m doing this concert. I want people to know just be who you are. If you don’t see what you want to see on the stage, do your own show. It’s so poignant that they see themselves. I’m hoping with every fiber of my being that I’m a good steward of the gift God has given me and that I’m a good example for the young men and women who are watching me.

On Facebook you dedicated a 2018 recital to the 6-year-old version of yourself. You had a chance to say what you wanted to him. What do you think that 6-year-old would say to you?

I’m proud of you. I’m so happy that you kept going and as he would say, “Keep on running to see what the end would be.” And I love you. Looking back I think my six-year-old self would say thank you for believing in me.

For tickets go here.

Main photo by Fay Fox. All photos courtesy of Unison Media.

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